Chop Steakhouse and Bar

From March 15-24th, the downtown business associations held their annual dining week in Edmonton. Many restaurants located in downtown Edmonton participated in this event where they served up multiple multi-course meals for special prices of $15, $25 and $50. When I heard of this, I was super excited to try many different restaurants! Unfortunately, this was a busy school week for me and I was only able to hit up 2 different restaurants: The common and Chop. :( Quite disappointed...but nonetheless it is better than none! Chop steakhouse is located inside Sutton Place Hotel, right in the heart of downtown. Parking is difficult to find around the area so be on the look out! For dinner they have two options for you to choose from: the $25 - 3 course menu or the executive $50 - 4 course menu. We settled for the cheaper menu since it was our first time at the restaurant and we did not know what to expect. I decided on the prime rib (9.oz) and Raymond settled for the lobster stuffed haddock.

New fish in town - Japonais Bistro

There is a new Japanese restaurant in town! I heard about this restaurant months before they had their grand opening on March 8th, 2013. The reason being, this restaurant is all about social media. They are extremely active on Facebook, with many posts informing us of their specials for the day. They are open to feedback and enjoy conversing with customers, making this restaurant very special! Many of my Facebook friends, liked this restaurant and it was constantly on my news feed. So on a Tuesday, my friends and I decided to head out for a very overdue birthday dinner for a friend. The location is a bit strange, and parking is very limited! They do have a parking lot, but they are connected with other businesses. The restaurant's interior is very nice, a nicely sized sushi bar in the front with the sushi chefs working furiously at completing orders. The menu had a very nice variety with many beautiful, tasty sounding, original rolls, wide sashimi selection, various appetizers and hot plate dishes.

Semi-hidden Korean Gem by Ellerslie- Wing Chicx

I had an awful time finding this restaurant....mainly because apple maps was leading me to the opposite side of where this restaurant would be. But as they say....don't trust apple maps... After driving around for about 15 minutes, with the maps leading us to Zaika each and every time... We (my boyfriend and I), managed to find this restaurant by turning into Pho Hoa (in ellerslie). We knew it was around that area and thought it would be next to Pho Hoa. But in reality, it was on the opposite side, where the new strip mall/business buildings are. The restaurant is quite small, with about 13 small tables, and on a Saturday night, the restaurant was full. Luckily, we only had to wait 15 mins because many people in the restaurant were finishing up. The interior is really adorable, constructed like a small cafe making the atmosphere very cheerful. 

Lannathai with the family...

My family and I usually go out to eat once a week. Most of us are indecisive and resort to a default Chinese restaurant or settle for a bowl of pho at Tau Bay. This week I suggested that we should go for Thai food. It has been a while since our last Thai restaurant. We have been to Syphay house, which is along 104 st next to the Malaysian restaurant Tropika. Syphay house was a delightful experience for us, the portions were not large but very filling. The tom yum goong soup at Syphay is the best I have had in Edmonton. The flavors were dense with spices and filled with ingredients. I remember when I visited Thailand, I was obsessed with tom yum soup. Every meal started off with it and by the end of our trip, I was still helping myself to seconds.

Lannathai offered a wide selection of dishes ranging from soup to noodles to meat and seafood dishes. We wanted to try some northern specific Thai food so we asked the server to recommend us some dishes. She recommended the Chiang Mai Curry with chicken and the Siam ocean seafood dish. In addition, we ordered tom yum goong soup (of course haha) and the usual pad thai with beef. 

Birthday night out at The Marc...

I am struggling at how to approach writing this food entry because this is the first time I have had French cuisine in Edmonton. Many years ago, my parents and I went on a tour to Montreal, Quebec and Toronto. Unfortunately, the memory of what we ate there, what we did, what we saw completely slipped my mind... Anyways, it was my best friend's birthday that week so I decided to take him to the Marc. Neither of us have been here before, but I saw many good things about this restaurant on urban spoon. The Marc is located in an interesting location and unfortunately they do not have a parking lot. Finding parking along the road was a bit tough so be prepared to walk! The interior of the restaurant was simple yet elegant, warm and relaxing. Upon arrival, we were pleasantly greeted by Mrs. Saurette (Doris Saurette) who is the owner of the restaurant. She offered to take our coats and hang them up for us (how nice!). The server for the night was informative, explained the specials of the night and suggested complementary wines to go along with the meal.

Study Break at Crepe Symphony...

A friend and I have been waiting for the right time to go to Crepe Symphony Cafe. In the middle of February, university students are usually bombarded with round one of midterms. But luckily for us, we managed to squeeze in the time to have a nice quiet lunch right before my last class that begins at 3:30pm. We hopped on the LRT to central station and found this Cafe right across one of the exits. I was extremely excited for this since I have been waiting to try crepes outside of Cora's or Ihop. It was quiet when we went there at around 2pm and we were the only ones in the Cafe. The cafe is quite small and cozy with a warm, inviting atmosphere. For drinks, I decided to go with something warm since I do live in one of the coldest province in Canada. I decided to try the macchiato, the only other place where I had something called ''macchiato'' was at Starbucks. 

The macchiato was delightful, it looked quite nice with the caramel syrup swirls on the top. It wasn't nearly as sweet as Starbucks, which is nice since I do not like my drinks too sweet. I find the caramel macchiato at Starbucks can be on the sweeter side to my taste.  

Let's get started...

I have always been an avid foodie and I am sure this trait was passed along to me from both my parents. My mother's family immigrated to America from Vietnam when she was in her early teens. There was such a big lifestyle change and one of the biggest was probably in their diet. Haha. She came from a big family of 8 siblings and all of her brothers and sisters shares a similar appetite for food. Every time we visit them in California, the first thing that is suggested to us when we walk out of the airport are not the places to see but are the places to eat. What can I say? We just love to eat. My father is from Penang Malaysia, and if you didn't know it has the best "hawker" food in whole Malaysia. People in Penang are known to eat 6 meals a day and while there isn't much to see within the "Turtle" island, there are many places to eat. 

One thing is for sure, I am glad my family and I are able to escape diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Knock on wood. Who knows how long that will keep up.. Here is a little information about who I am. 

My name is Nicole, I am currently enrolled at the University of Alberta as a 4th year science student. After my undergraduate degree, I am hoping to further my education with the opportunity to obtain my masters in occupational therapy. I am definitely not a professional food critic, nor can I even critique food correctly... I am just a normal student who is lucky to enjoy many different cuisines and experience different types of food. Unfortunately, I find everything quite tasty so we will see how this goes... The idea of blogging came up a while ago, I wanted a way to keep track what goes on in my daily life so I can possibly come back after a few years and go "oh hey so I have done that, tried that... I remember doing this." This is also my first time blogging...so I am not quite sure how to navigate through the site or use all these functions. Hopefully, I will be able to figure this out with time. Let's go eat!